Development of the present invention was made practical when the Food and Drug Administration approved the safe use of ozone in gaseous and aqueous phases as an antimicrobial agent on food products, including meat and poultry, on Jul. 26, 2001.
The Council for Agriculture Science and Technology estimates that the microbial food-borne disease burden of the United States is in the range of 33 million cases per year and deaths may be as high as 9,000 annually. It has been estimated by the General Accounting Office in a study of food-borne diseases that such illnesses cost the U.S. economy up to 37.1 billion dollars annually in medical costs and lost productivity. The number of food-borne diseases is likely to rise as trade between nations increases. It is extremely difficult to maintain proper inspection standards when inspectors are caught in a conflict between enforcement responsibility and facilitating the flow of goods. Due to multiple original points of distribution and the inability to determine the quality of prior handling methods it is beneficial to apply this technology as close to the plate as possible.
Ozone, a naturally occurring allotrope of oxygen, is a powerful disinfectant that kills microbial contaminants by rupturing the cellar membrane in a matter of seconds, making reactivation of the cell impossible. For example, ozone kills Escherichia coli bacteria at a rate greater than 3,000 times faster than does chlorine. There are no known bacteria or viruses resistant to ozone. In contrast to chlorine, which creates toxic by-products and leaves undesirable tastes and odors in foods, ozone leaves no chemical residue on foods and does not alter the product characteristics. Data on ozone is available in any handbook of Chemistry and Physics. The International Ozone Association is a good source for information.
Ozone is considered to be the most effective disinfecting method for maintaining water quality, and is the disinfectant of choice for bacteria and viruses in most water applications. Applications of ozone technology include commercial and residential swimming pools and spas, life support systems for aquariums and hatcheries, cooling towers for process and comfort cooling, pulp and paper treatment, irrigation and wastewater, bottled water plants, ultra pure water, biotechnology and pharmaceutical processes, ice making equipment, and disinfection of food products.
Generally, when ozone is used as a disinfectant, it is first dissolved in water. The ozonated water is then applied to the surface of the material to be disinfected. In ice making applications, the ozonated water is subsequently frozen. In some applications, ozone in gaseous form is used as a disinfectant. Ozonated water is much more efficient than gaseous ozone, however, because a greater concentration of ozone can be applied directly to the surface of the material to be disinfected. Additionally, the direction of ozone application can be more closely controlled.
Although ozone is highly unstable and breaks down quickly, especially in sunlight, it is desirable to minimize ozone introduction to the atmosphere when using it for purposes of disinfection. To this end, many processes employ an ozone destruct system that would prevent the process from exceeding the maximum indoor ozone concentration levels that are acceptable by the various government regulatory agencies (FDA regulation is 0.05 ppm with a 24 hour a day exposure and OSHA Standards are levels above 0.1 ppm based on 8 hours per day/6 days per week) by utilizing ultraviolet light, a bed of manganese dioxide catalyst, or the like. Nevertheless, a certain amount of ozone is likely to escape in any commercial process, and therefore it is desirable to utilize ozone as efficiently as possible to minimize the amount of ozone necessary for the process. For more information on indoor ozone, please refer to Ozone: Important Information on Ozone and Electronic Air Cleaners, published by Honeywell, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference.